Carly Totten

A trained journalist and event planner, Carly Totten is a wedding planner for couples based in Philadelphia and beyond, as well as a copywriter for creative entrepreneurs. She joyfully shares her wedding planning tips and styling ideas as a contributor for The Spruce.

Highlights

Carly began planning weddings in 2011 and plans many celebrations per year.

Carly’s work has been featured in print in Brides and Philadelphia Wedding Magazine and online with Every Last Detail, The Huffington Post, and WeddingWire.

Carly graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rider University with a B.A. in Journalism and a minor in Event Planning.

Experience

During the spring of her senior year of college at Rider University, Carly was introduced to the world of editorial writing for the wedding industry. She accepted an internship with Brides.com and would later become a freelance writer for their local magazines – a position she coveted and began upon graduating Summa Cum Laude.

For seven years, Carly has continued to build upon her initial experience and has had the great honor of contributing to wedding and lifestyle outlets, including Philadelphia Wedding Magazine, Every Last Detail, The Huffington Post, Red Oak Weddings, The Spruce, and WeddingWire.

In order to write relatable content, Carly is an active wedding planner in Philadelphia. She plans at least 10 weddings each year for couples desiring to tell their relationship’s story. As a planner, she is drawn toward creating classic soirees with preppy style, curating meaningful details, and encouraging family relationships while maintaining a strong focus on the true reason for the celebration – marriage.

Outside of planning and editorial writing, Carly is also a copywriter for entrepreneurs perusing businesses in the creative industry. Her clients include bloggers, event planners, photographers, and stationery designers. Due to her experience as a copywriter, Carly was a featured speaker for Wedding International Professionals Association (WIPA).

Education

Carly’s professional writing career began at Rider University, a small liberal arts college in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, where she majored in Journalism and minored in Event Planning. She hadn’t quite decided how she would combine the two until a fateful internship during her final semester of her senior year. Brides.com + Brides Local Magazines allowed Carly to take her first peek behind the scenes of the wedding industry, and she realized during those 10 weeks that it was the industry where she felt the most creative, free to explore, and excited.

As an intern, Carly asked questions, packed dresses, wrote blogs, connected with wedding professionals, and left with an offer to stay with the team as a freelance writer. She was fortunate to see her name in print in Brides Local Magazines across the country just a few months after graduating from college. That experience propelled Carly to remain connected with her editors and network with others, and since Carly’s work has been published online with Buzzfeed, Every Last Detail, The Huffington Post, The Spruce, WeddingWire, and Yahoo!.

Carly is passionate about wedding planning because the process allows her to immerse myself in varied cultures, lead teams of professionals that change with every wedding, and celebrate a couple by leading the logistics charge so they can be present and joyful on their wedding day. Carly plans weddings with less than 100 guests and some with more than 300 in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and beyond.

The wedding industry is always changing and ever-evolving, which allows Carly to constantly learn something new to weave into her next planned celebration or written piece. For this reason, Carly doesn’t think it’s an industry she’ll ever tire of experiencing.

Awards and Publications

Carly graduated Summa Cum Laude from Rider University in 2011. She has been published in print with Brides Local Magazines and Philadelphia Wedding Magazine, as well as online with Buzzfeed, Every Last Detail, The Huffington Post, Red Oak Weddings, The Spruce, WeddingWire, and Yahoo!. Carly was also a featured speaker on copywriting for Wedding International Professionals Associated (WIPA) in Philadelphia.

About The Spruce

The Spruce, a Dotdash brand, is a new kind of home website offering practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help you create your best home. The Spruce family of brands, including The Spruce, The Spruce Eats, The Spruce Pets, and The Spruce Crafts collectively reach 30 million people each month.

For more than 20 years, Dotdash brands have been helping people find answers, solve problems, and get inspired. We are one of the top-20 largest content publishers on the Internet according to comScore, a leading Internet measurement company, and reach more than 30% of the U.S. population every month. Our brands collectively have won more than 20 industry awards in the last year alone and, most recently, Dotdash was named Publisher of the Year by Digiday, a leading industry publication.